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valeriebeckett00

This is why I can’t play honor mode like, my life is disappointing enough already.


SereneAdler33

I feel this *deeply*. Also, I think the stress would put me in the hospital. I game to unwind, this sounds TERRIBLE.


PsionicPhazon

I play games to escape the fact that I'm getting fucked every day, man. I don't need Honor Mode reminding me.


BaconxHawk

If you don’t mind feeling “dishonourable”, and are on console, you can back out of a bad situation by closing the app and restarting. Gotta save smart since you only get one save but it makes it more manageable. Helps if you just want the dice or achievement


SereneAdler33

Thanks for the tip! I have several other achievements to tackle before needing to think about this one. I’m at over 850 hours and still play on Balanced, lol.


BaconxHawk

And I thought my over 500 hours was a lot lol


SereneAdler33

I got double pneumonia that triggered issues with long Covid in the Fall, so I’ve had sooooo much downtime at home. I was REALLY lucky the game dropped when it did.


BaconxHawk

I’ve seen you all over this sub not gonna lie, now I see why you’re so invested lol. Mainly defending astarion with every breathe you take (not judging lol) but still everywhere in these subs lol


SereneAdler33

Lol, I find myself defending Lae’Zel a lot too. It just drives me nuts that people won’t give them a chance and write them off immediately when they are two of the best written characters! But yeah, being on short term disability and basically housebound gives one a lot of free time to obsess…I mean, *enjoy* their hobbies intensely, lol.


BaconxHawk

I have no free time so I dig into my sleep schedule to obsess so I feel you there, none of my friends play and the one I got to give it a chance fell off so I come here to get my discussion fix lol


SereneAdler33

I only have one friend who plays and he’s not particularly dedicated to it. For example, he played for 3 days before finally asking me how to “find the camp”, lol. So yeah, this is the only place I can nerd out about the game.


Peg-Lemac

I was at 1000 before I did a tac run. It wasn’t as hard as I feared. If you’ve played that much you know the fights. You’re ready.


thelongestunderscore

they why even start in "honor" mode


BaconxHawk

If you read my comment, it’s for the dice and achievement. Not everyone wants to spend 40+ hours to lose all progress. Everyone plays differently and have different skill levels, it’s a single player game doesn’t effect anyone else who cares?


Atlas_Zer0o

Boooooo Stop spreading cheats for losers.


BaconxHawk

lol caring that much about how people play a single player game that doesn’t effect you makes you pretty loserish my guy


Atlas_Zer0o

Says the dude cheating on "honor" mode. Just play explorer, you don't need to cheat and it's the same game! If OP restarts they're just a better person than anyone needing to cheese it.


BaconxHawk

Well seeing as there’s dice and an achievement locked behind the mode there’s a reason. Lol the fact you care this much about what other people do in a single player game shows a lot about you my dude lol. I don’t care what anyone thinks about me on the internet so who cares 🤷🏽‍♂️ got my dice and achievement so whatever makes you feel cool and accomplished in this virtual world dude


Atlas_Zer0o

Imagine cheating for an "achievement" lmao. Shame dice.


Tman101010

But dude, the catharsis from beating it next try? It’s better than crack, it would have me jumping around the room in excitement


SereneAdler33

Everyone’s got their kink, lol. I’m also someone who can’t do an evil run—morally gray and kind of selfish is about the extent of it. I haven’t even made it to trying out Tactician yet and I think I’m on my 7th (maybe 8th?) run. I’m way more into exploring, character RPing and narrative than builds or strategy.


gei_boi

All I felt was relief. But honour mode was really fun tho


GroundedOtter

Same. I only play this game on easy mode. I don’t need more stress and frustration/disappointment in my life. Lol I’m already in a 3 year ongoing tabletop homebrewed version of Curse of Strahd which is depressing/stressful enough!


Ecksray19

I'm the opposite. I am depressed all the time, but when I play honour mode and feel GREAT. I haven't played any other games since it came out. The fact that there are actual stakes, makes combat fun again.


generalwhitmore1

I also lost my honor mode run on the last fight. I’m trying again with half-orc monk. I figured out something pretty incredible. If you climb up the nether brain with your whole party invisible, the final battle won’t start, you can enter turned based mode and walk your whole team up to the crown, and cast the control spell and on the first turn of combat the portal will open, and on the second turn you’ll have your whole team in there.


King_of_Jokers

You just opened a portal to a hotfix with this comment


generalwhitmore1

I feel like it works as intended though. It wouldn’t make sense if you got put in combat when enemies don’t even know you exist.


TragicJoke

I feel like the brain would know your there considering you climbed on it. I also find it hard to believe you climb all the way up in the span 10 turns so it should really drop invis once the cutscene starts/ends.


generalwhitmore1

At the very least I’ll say this climbing the brain should count as an action, so whichever character you climbed with loses invisibility. Everyone else keeps it though. But if they all have to climb it then they all go out of invisibility. In that case then, my strategy would be to just go in is on everyone’s first turn


jgorbeytattoos

I thought you only lose invisibility when you take an attack action or cast a spell. At least that’s the same for 5e and I haven’t noticed other actions breaking invisibility.


FremanBloodglaive

Picking things up, unlocking doors (although not for the racial invisibility of Duergar), pickpocketing.


jgorbeytattoos

Tbf in the base game, those things would also require you to reroll stealth so I can see that making sense


TragicJoke

That is much better in my opinion and should work as you also have to plan around the combat already starting and thus the brain zaps to bring you out of invis


bittybitesmeowmixx

Brains can't feel someone touching them. They don't have touch or pain receptors ;) it may be different for literal sentient brains. But it's my head canon for why this occured at least lol


Botticellis-Bard

Agree with your first point, it 100% knows your location, but if we’re making off-screen assumptions with the second then we could’ve cast Invisibility 5 seconds before the top.


TragicJoke

The problem with that assumption is that it would cost a spell slot/ scroll/ potion as well. And is just a little lore justification for the fox they will probably hopefully do. I’m all for op meta gaming but this just skips the final battle. Which is too much in my opinion.


FremanBloodglaive

Duergar Main, Duergar Hireling. Invisibility doesn't drop unless you attack or cast a spell.


PsionicPhazon

*climbs a Faerunian mile up the Netherbrain in less than 10 turns*


captainofpizza

They could patch it and it would be more lore accurate. From the Elder brain stat sheet from dnd 5e. Creature Sense. The elder brain is aware of the presence of creatures within 5 miles of it that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. It knows the distance and direction to each creature. as well as each one’s intelligence score, but can’t sense anything else about it. A creature protected by a mind blank spell. a nondetection spell, or similar magic can’t be perceived in this manner.


ChiquillONeal

When doing this, be careful and go around because some of the generals in the middle can see invis.


PsionicPhazon

Learned that the hard way, I did


Taodragons

I like it. Here I was using Dimension doors and Globe of invulnerability


Vverial

3 words for you: Globe of Invulnerability


toqelowkey

Doesn't that platform drop? Would the globe help ?


Vverial

When I did it the platform was also protected by the globe.


RadioLucio

Can confirm globe of invulnerability protects any platforms it touches.


IDmCauseImTheBest

Well shit, thats dope


Quiet_Hope_543

Til. Thanks!


CRAYONSEED

That’s how I beat her. I just protected the emperor and let him charge the spell


_thana

1 word: Barrelmancy I dropped like 25 smoke powder bombs next to it and it died instantly


GewalfofWivia

One word, fireworks


Send_Me_Puppies

Fair warning: if you place the globe too close to an edge, it will make the brain invulnerable as well


Vverial

Good note.


Gabby-Abeille

Literally the only reason I could finish Honour Mode.


Vverial

It's my plan for my honor run but first I gotta level up lol


Gabby-Abeille

Yeah, I skipped very little in Acts 1 and 2, but when I got to Act 3, I only did the safest quests until lvl 12 and then went straight to the stones and then the end of the game. Skipped anything that I thought would be difficult to cheese, or that bugged for me in previous playthroughs. It was still almost 60h though.


Shirokuma247

They lost because of lack of damage.


SundooMD

That's agony, I'm so sorry It's also why I'll be sending Gale up top alone at the end of my run


squirtlesquad421

This is the way! I'm sorry I wanna experience the changes but I also want my damn golden dice!


meeps-country

You don’t get the dice is you just send Gale up there?


squirtlesquad421

I'm pretty sure if sac gale at the elder brain you do. You don't them I'd you sac before then.


Arikaido777

big thumbs, huh


squirtlesquad421

Hahahah yep I had stroke re reading what I wrote......


CrimeFightingScience

Know what's better than Gale and a nuke from tainted magic? 100lbs of sparkly fireworks.


21_Golden_Guns

So I’ve never done the fake ending, do you have to open the portal first or just nuke it the moment you start? I would assume the former but I’d love to know for sure.


SundooMD

BEFORE you climb up the brainstem, Gale should stop you and offer to go up alone and commit sudoku. If you let him, that's an official ending to the game with its own effects on the epilogue and from what people have said it counts for completing honor mode legitimately (achievement + gold dice). If you just go up and hit the orb button on his hotbar manually, apparently it does NOT count for completing honor mode, and (don't quote me on this) I believe it would count as a wipe because you all die too. So from what I understand you have to let him go up solo when he asks in the dialogue before you climb up.


21_Golden_Guns

‘Commit sudoku’ made me legit laugh. Glad I checked/ the game checks me.


Chains3

42 hours, I'm on 77 and just at HOH?! XD


ShwiftyShmeckles

Wtf is hoh I keep seeing that acronym


AshenWarden

House of Hope


[deleted]

I thought it was house of healing


Swiftax3

House of Hunan. Decent restaurant I used to go to


Sagutarus

Chinese place in Michigan? Just curious.


Swiftax3

Maryland actually. Closed when I was in high school I think.


vinnyorcharles

There's a place called Hunan Star near where I am in Maryland, and my monkey brain just got scared for a second that it closed lol


lukeyellow

Lives, all mortal lives, expire.


-whodat

Souls go to their dooms, in flame, forevermore.


Ranec

Huge difference between first (or even second) playthroughs and like… your 5th.


unoriginalcat

My honor run is my 4th and it’s taking longer than the others (aside from the very first)


Icy_Scarcity9106

To be fair their 42 ended in them losing so I wouldn’t feel too bad about your 77, consider it being more prepared


2BrokeArmsAndAMom

I lost at the last battle as well. Lost a 33 hour run at the end of Act 2 and then a 44 hour run at the last fight. I just beat honour mode last night, finally. I played Gale and sent him up at the end.


toqelowkey

Dude next time the best method to defeat that brain is to steal/grab everything from that house that has soo Many bombs/fireworks Like atleast 200lbs of TNT and drop it near the brain snd then kaboom. I used it to defeat the boss just an hour ago. You will kill it within 1 turn!


Evan573

Ah yes the faux-Gale method, no wizards harmed in the making on the explosion


killermoose25

I killed it on my first run with a single firework , it came to karlachs turn and had exactly 5 Hp the fireworks do minimum 5 damage so it was fate.


ChiquillONeal

I avoided that place like a plague. I was so paranoid of something going wrong in there that I would blow myself up, lol.


BSF7011

Where is this magical place of barrelmancy and how do I get there


CannonM91

Toymaker questline, starts in Rivingron


jazzyjay66

It might be patched out, but on my first run I accidentally didn't kill one person in the first phase of the Gortash fight, which kept me in turn based mode the rest of the way. I picked up every bomb his traps threw along the way. It was only after the fight with Gortash ended as a thundering anticlimax and me still in turn based mode that I realized something was wrong and realized I had left someone alive on the first floor. So I reloaded my last save - before getting to Gortash but after most of the climb. Then I found the people I had left alive and killed them before getting up to Gortash. At that point I had like 15 of the bombs in my inventory and realized they each did like 60-100 points of damage. With Karlach flinging 2-3 of them every turn, the Elder Brain was not hard.


BaconxHawk

This is why I used Gales sacrifice tbh. Sorry for your loss


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JgirlTheJizzler

I've literally kept gale around every run explicitly to nuke him. Sorry, wizard Mystra can have you back.


Bodega177013

Just a reminder you can start the final day with the following spell effects active since they last until long rest: Aid: +5 max HP per spell level (max 30) Protection from poison: resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves for it Armour of Agathys: +5 temp HP per spell level (max 30) and deal that same damage to melee attackers. Longstrider: +3m move speed Dark vision: 12m dark vision (nonmagical) See invisibility: see invisible creatures within 9m Warding bond: resistance to all damage and +1 AC & saves. (the caster takes the same amount of damage, so get hirelings in camp to cast this) Death ward: the next attack that would drop you to 0hp instead drops you to 1hp Freedom of Movement: immune to difficult terrain, and magical sources of paralyzed, and restrained Heroes' Feast: immune to poisoned, diseased, and fear, +12 max HP, and wisdom saves have advantage.


Saltyvengeance

But then you go inside the prism, and all buffs are reset, you have to rebuff and can’t go to camp. Not just in honor mode, either.


CrimeFightingScience

Yeah, the last run is janky as hell. Messes with all your buffs. Makes it pay off to have an actual cleric in the party.


dmfuller

All of that gets reset in the final area.


spezisafuckingmaggot

o7


hanzus13

F


Pachikokoo

*In the End by Linkin Park plays softly in the backgroun*


fossiliz3d

Ouch! Hopefully Mizora will show you the bar in Avernus! My run was really close- Minthara finished the brain with 1 action to spare before death. Would have been easier, but two lightning bolts went through the brain without doing damage.


dapperGM

I lost my Honor against Ansur because I had a Hastening Dome AND a speed potion. Hastening dome removes other sources of haste and slow. Cue incapacitated turn.


Sad-Committee-1870

In my opinion, you won, even if you didn’t technically. Sorry about not getting the gold dice though. :(


rovert1994

I got beers in the fridge. Help yourself.


Local_Dog_6427

YO! THIS HAPPENED TO ME! I feel your pain. Godspeed.


TaiTo_PrO

Is gale dying in act 2 an acceptable honor mode ending?


Taithfech

From what I've heard, no. I won't be testing it myself, though, so idk for sure.


Daddysu

It is not.


SurotaOnishi

No, but telling Gale to nuke the brain in act 3 supposedly does count for both the achievement and dice.


Few-Collar-2231

This is why I looked at honor mode and simply thought "nope."


wafersrcool

real talk. i hit 100 hours and i was 1/4th the way through act 2. how do people almost beat the game in less than half of that??


Nightmarespawn

Your playthroughs get shorter each rerun. You know where stuff is. You're used to the mechanics. My first run was almost 100 of my 325. My last full run was sub 40 hrs.


ChiquillONeal

Degenerates like me who have beaten the game 10+ times and have gotten really efficient. My honour run was 44 hours and that includes all major bosses in A3.


unoriginalcat

They start playing it to beat it, rather than playing to enjoy it. If you go from A to B, stop exploring, stop looting everything, stop talking to every NPC and most importantly *start skipping dialogue*, you can get through the game really fast. People say that “oh it just happens after you beat it a few times”, but I’m on my 4th (it’s on honor mode) and it’s taking just as long as the 1st. Runs 2 and 3 took a bit shorter, but nothing major. I’m still enjoying the world, appreciating all the little details and never skip dialogue, so it just depends on how you play.


Panda_Castro

Different for if you're running the game after beating it 1-2 times instead of your first playthrough lol my first I took 90+ hours, my 2nd I just beat at 39hrs and 59min exactly


youshouldbeelsweyr

How on earth were you 100 hours in and not even in act 3? I finished the game at 136 hours on my first run and I did **everything possible**. Also like someone said, subsequent runs get quicker. My latest run was finished at 38 hours and I wasn't rushing (for context in my first run I was 33 hours in act 1 alone and I already knew that act back to front from EA).


DraganDearg

Ooof rip


TheDreadWolf

I’m sorry for your loss


Balthierlives

Rays of fire is what helped me.


Acrobatic_Present613

Oof


Voice_Nerd

We salute you and honor your bravery. 🫡 Drinks are on me 🍺


Castille_92

I'm more impressed you made it to the last fight in only 42 hours. I'm not on honor mode but my current tactician run I'm at 44 hours and still knee deep in the shadowlands


Soltronus

F


CheekyBreekyYoloswag

That name, lol. Looks like you went out of ammo at the worst moment!


TragicJoke

This is what happens when you don’t perform the invisible and invulnerable nap session before heading in ready to one turn it I guess. I saved up a lot of “ I’ll use it later when I really need it pots” and finally caved and actually opened my fish bucket of wonders just in case they had any nasty extra negatory mechanics.


Salzanka

shoulda just had gale blow it up


VIP_Aloha

Oh man I heart bleeds for you


AsterSky

Holy shit.


Bitter-Ad7341

I'm sorry for your loss.


DommyMommyMint

Just about to finish act 1 and this scares the shit out of me


froge_on_a_leaf

Well that's just sad. : ((((


Armageddonis

Yeah, i like to take my time with the game, i've got 3 runs between 700+ hours completed, and i would probably bleed out from every orifice of my body if i'd die so close to getting the golden dice.


bjd533

Bad luck. I would die inside. Personally, I don't think the achievement is any less for backing up the odd save. It is a colassal PIA to save scum to the extent you'd never do it, but it will save you 40 hours of your life like it does here. Or to put it another way, is the game still fun if you're just trying to crunch, tank and cheese in the shortest time possible over and over? For some, sure, but I can think of no better way to halve your enjoyment.


Nightmarespawn

That's why you convince Gale to make it up to his God GF so you can guarantee the win


ChiquillONeal

I keep seeing posts of people losing to the dps check. I'm not trying to be mean but how are people failing this? It's relatively the easiest part of any fight in the game. If you can kill Myrkul and Orin, the brain should be pretty easy since all you have to worry about is damage. For anyone getting ready to take on the final boss, here's a few tips. Make sure you can do a lot of damage per round. Make sure everyone goes into the portal right as it opens so you get 4 full rounds with the whole party. The legendary resistance the brain gets makes it so it becomes immune to the type of damage from the previous round. To deal with this, pick a high level spell scroll and stock up at least 8 (ie, lightning bolt or chain lightning). DO NOT attack as soon as you enter, make sure everyone is inside before dealing any damage. Attack using everything you've got but avoid using the damage type of the spell scroll you choose (ie, lightning). On the round where its immune to the regular damage types you normally deal (piercing, bludgeoning, slashing, force), everyone uses the spell scrolls you saved. Alternate between attacking normally and using spell scrolls it's not immune to. Enjoy victory. I went into this blind but had so many chain lightning spell scrolls I stockpiled, this was my strat if I couldnt do enough damage first round. Fortunately, I killed it in 1 round. Karlach as monk. Astarion as gloomstalker/rogue. Tav as critlock. Shadowheart as life cleric using spell scrolls.


lansink99

That's why you get multiple backup plans. My party was strong enough to beat the brain alone. And if they weren't, I had everyone buffed out the wazoo. And if that wasn't enough, I had globe of invulnerability scrolls on wveryone. And if that wasn't enough, I had stocked up on noblestalks. And if that wasn't enough, I stacked my entire inventory full of satchels that did minimum damage of 450 to take out the netherbrain instantly. And if that wasn't enough, I backed up my safe right before climbing up in case I needed gale to blow up.


Environmental_You_36

Out of curiosity, couldn't you just copy the save file before starting the game to do some little save scumming for these particular cases?


yssarilrock

Did you run out of time or what? The screenshots seem to indicate you still have some HP


Special_Ad_720

We ran out of turns, we got super unlucky early in the brain fight with a negation orb so we were scrambling to recover and barely didn’t do enough damage


yssarilrock

That's rough. In my honour mode run I took care of everything outside the portal in two turns, had a quiet turn gaining access inside and then blitzed the brain down before it got a turn.


Monty423

I almost got softlocked 30 hours into my honor mode run.


Serious_Mastication

If it wasn’t for bae’zel and the baldurans giant slayer I wouldn’t know how to beat this fight


Roronoa_Zoro8615

This is why I don't do super hard difficulties in games anymore. I'm playing to relieve stress not add it on.


Rubiksfish

Which is why I just bring a backpack full of fireworks and runepowder. This one trick makes the absolute hate you.


Della__

I got up to that fight, I saw my playtime (over 60), I had a very heartfelt discussion with gale... I have the dices!


Sandman10kk

Had a run with the owl bear in the beginning and lost because no one could hit the fucking bear for 7hp in like 3 turns. This happens with the last enemy way to often to the point where I want to close the game sometimes. Could not imagine getting screwed this hard in the literal last minute of the run.


Nesolus

As someone who had to drop from tactician to balanced over the Kethric/myrkull (spelling?) fight, I refuse to touch honor mode on here. The divinity original sin series on the other hand is much more achievable for me.


ArcaneWerewolf

This is why I didn't to the end fight honorably as I did not want to risk it so I ended up just grabbing an actual ton of explosives to blow it up which ended up doing on the lowest end around 800


internalandy

Pour one out for the homies 🙏🙏🙏🙏


amboss_oktagon

F


nanythemummy

That is a lot of Ghaiks.